Play Kitchen. Pallet Ideas. How to Build an Awesome Play Kitchen. Using Reclaimed Pallet Wood!

Gidday knuckleheads, it’s Uncle Knackers here and it’s great to be back. Now before I start, I just want to give a quick thank you and a shout out to all of those who sent in messages in regard to my dodgy shoulder. It was much appreciated. What do you think of the growth and the new specks? Very Blue Steel. So today’s project, I thought I’d start the year off, if you call the middle of March start of the year, with a really fun build.

And I’ve come up with the idea of an outdoor play kitchen for the kids, made out of old pallets. S1: Now I don’t want a symmetrical, big, bulky pallet kitchen. I want one that’s a bit wonky, where nothing really lines up and it looks like it’s come out of an old comic book. Now just between you and I, I can’t wait to start this, so first of all, all we need are some pallets. Got one. Was that possibly the world’s worst ever special effect? Think so. S1: Now for my play kitchen, you’ll notice that I’m using old hardwood pallets and there’s two really good reasons for that.

The first reason is that, I reckon it looks better. I love that old rustic look. And the second reason is that the new pine softwood pallets, they still might have some chemical residue left over which might not be that flash [01:19] ____ for the kids. S1: Now you’ll also notice that I have a heavy-duty hardwood pallet and a much more light-duty hardwood pallet. And the reason for that is that I want this one here to go up on the top with the slats running that way.

And I want the lighter one for the bottom shelf with the slats running the other direction. And that’s purely to create some contrast. So now it’s time to cut the shelves, the depth of the shelves. Now I’ve already cut the bottom shelf, now all I need to do is cut the top shelf. Now the depth of my shelves is going to be around 530 millimetres or about 21 inches. [background noise] S1: So your top shelf’s cut and your bottom shelf’s cut.

Now all you need do is to fill in these gaps with the slats that you have left over. Now before you install those slats, it’s a great idea to grab your sander and give the whole unit a sand. Because it’s much easier at this stage then when it’s all assembled. And after all, you don’t want your kids getting splinters. [background noise] S1: Now remember, with this build it doesn’t need to be too neat. So if there’s gaps between your boards, it doesn’t really matter. I’m liking this job more and more. [background noise] S1: Done. Now it’s time for the legs.

Now before we attach those legs, you’ll notice that I’ve made a bit of a detail change to this top shelf. I’ve cut the support back about an inch and a half from that leading edge. Now the reason for that is that I didn’t want the top shelf to look too bulky across the front. So I’ve cut it back an inch and a half, and what that does is it allows me to install this slat which I’ve cut down. And that’ll go across like that, and the front looks much lighter. I like it. Now for the legs, I’m just using the slats from that same old pallet. I’m going to cut them to a length of 650 millimetres which I think is about 25-1/2 inches. Now that measurement isn’t set in stone. I think it just depends on how tall your kids are.

[background noise] S1: So it’s time to attach the legs. Now to create that wonky comic-like look, we want to come in about two inches from the edge. And then I don’t want the leg to sit straight up and down, I want it to be kicked in just a little bit. And then you can nail off. So once again, come in about two inches or 50 mil from the edge of the pallet and then nail on the leg and make sure it’s slightly kicked in or kicked out, whichever one you want. S1: So now we have the top shelf sitting over the bottom shelf. And you’ll also notice that this bottom pallet here is sitting on some blocks on either end and both sides.

And the reason for that is that that elevates this pallet up off the ground and away from the water. Now the legs also are going to be nailed off into this pallet, but I’ve also just kicked them in just a little bit just to create that wonkiness look. [background noise] S1: And now, just to make it a bit more stable, I might drive a couple of screws into each of these legs here just to make it a bit more solid. And before you drive those screws in, just make sure you pre-drill first ’cause this old hardwood splits really easily. [background noise] S1: Well, it’s looking pretty good but like all kitchens it needs a splash back. So, a couple of these slats will do the job just nicely. [background noise] S1: And now it’s time for a bit of advertising that I wanna display across that splash back. [background noise] S1: Looks pretty good, doesn’t it? Of course, all kitchen benches will have a kitchen sink.

So, go grab yourself an old cake tin or a bucket, something like that and place it on the bench where you want it. Get a pencil. Trace around the outside edge. Go on grab a jig saw, like this, cut that shape out and drop the sink in. Just in case you haven’t used one of these jig saws before, you’ll need to drill a hole in the surface first so you can insert that blade. [background noise] S1: So now, the blade from this jig saw can sit inside that hole and you can start your cut. [background noise] S1: With the hole cut, we can now drop our sink in. [pause] S1: Beautiful. With the kitchen sink in place, I think what the bench top needs now are a couple hot plates. I intend to paint a couple onto the surface here. Now, you can always use an old pot from the kitchen or maybe even an old Frisbee that you got floating around the backyard.

Over the fence. [pause] S1: It’s a pretty dodgy old paint job but I think you get the idea. All done. Looks pretty good, doesn’t it? I think I need a couple of control knobs for those two hot plates. I’m going to use my hole saw, that I used for cutting out door handles. There we are. You don’t want to screw these on too tight because you still want the knob to turn. Lovely. Now I’ve just cut some little pieces of timber and painted them black and I want to put those on the face of the knob like that, so that the kids can easily turn it. Now, to attach these little pieces of wood I need to nail them but nailing it will definitely split that timber. S1: So, you’ll need to pre-drill but you won’t be able to get a drill bit small enough.

All you have to do is get the nail size that your going to be using, cut the head off, with some pliers. Then use that nail as the drill bit. Works like a charm. There it is all done. I’m absolutely rapt in how it turned out. It looks like it’s come out of a comic book, which is what I wanted. Even better still the total cost for this build was one dollar and that was for the cake tin that I bought from an op-shop. Now you can knock this up easily in a weekend and it’s going to provide the kids hours and hours of mud pie making fun. I wish I had one of these when I was kid. So, who’s up for a mud pie? They’re only five cents, an absolute bargain.

S1: Great tip, Knackers! What a great little project and if you enjoyed it, please subscribe to my channel and give it the ole thumbs up. It’ll be all greatly appreciated. Anyway I can’t wait till young bloke gets home from school. He’s gonna love it. Straight out of the oven, they smell absolutely beautiful, but I’ll only charge you five cents. I’m not gonna make any money.

I might have to re-jig my pricing structure. Anyway till then, I’m out of here. Cheers.